By the end, it seemed inevitable. Texas has offered Rodney Terry a contract to be its next head men’s basketball coach.
As the Texas Longhorns‘ run through the 2023 men’s NCAA Tournament continued, it felt inevitable. Eventually, Texas had to offer Rodney Terry the full-time head coaching job.
It became official on Monday, the day after Miami knocked the Longhorns out of the tournament in an epic Elite Eight showdown. After reports surfaced late Sunday night, athletic director Chris Del Conte formally offered Terry the job, after he stepped in as interim head coach earlier this year.
The deal is for five years and worth $15.3 million, a source told Boardroom.
Terry took over the program on Dec. 12, hours after then-head coach Chris Beard was arrested on a third-degree felony assault charge. That night, Rice took Texas to overtime, before the Longhorns prevailed, continuing a streak that grew to nine wins in 10 games.
The Big 12 schedule was less forgiving, though that’s to be expected from the highest-rated conference in the country. Still, Texas finished 12-6 in the conference regular season, punctuated by a double-digit win over Kansas on Senior Day. The Longhorns kept that momentum into the Big 12 Tournament, beating Oklahoma State and TCU before blowing out the Jayhawks in the conference title game and earning a 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament.
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Though Texas came up short of its ultimate goal of a Final Four, its tournament run included a dominating win over 3-seed Xavier and a gutsy performance against an under-seeded Penn State team.
Now, Terry must move Texas into the future. The Longhorns had six seniors on the roster who contributed serious minutes, and though the COVID year rule may mean some can return, there will be new faces leading the charge in 2023-24. Texas will enroll two top-40 recruits next year, including ESPN’s No. 5 overall, Ron Holland. Terry has also proven a master of the transfer portal and will look to reload from there as well.
It all means Terry heads into the offseason with job security and roster uncertainty. In 2023, that’s about the most a head coach could ask for.
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